NHL

P.K Subban on Olympics: I ‘let my play do the talking’

So Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban has heard the talk about him possibly not being on the Canadian Olympic team, and the defending Norris Trophy winner wasn’t about to get sucked into the conversation.

“I’ve never had to justify my game to anybody,” Subban said before his team faced off against the Devils at the Prudential Center. “I just go out there and do my job and let my play do the talking. It’s part of the game, it’s part of professional sports. There are people whose job it is to critique your game.”

Although it’s almost silly to think that there are six to seven better Canadian-born defenseman playing today, the hubbub started when respected reporter Bob MacKenzie went on TSN in Canada on Tuesday and said, “I would put P.K. on the team but I don’t know if the powers that be would.”

Subban, 24, then went out that night and had an assist and a plus-1 rating in a 3-2 win over the Devils in Montreal, the first of this midseason home-and-home. He now has four goals and 20 assists in 28 games, along with a plus-10 rating and a 9.94 on-ice 5-on-5 Corsi rating, placing him 20th among NHL defensemen with at least 20 games played.

The main critique is that Subban is not reliable enough in his own end, which is something the stats don’t back up and something his coach Michel Therrein was quick to shoot down.

“We [have given] him different responsibilities defensively playing against good players in the league,” Therrein said, his team 8-1-2 over their past 11, behind only Boston and Pittsburgh atop the Eastern Conference. “He’s shown a lot of leadership, the way he has prepared himself and approached the game. Definitely, defensively, he has been really, really, really good.”

It also helps that Subban’s team is playing well. Which, as a good teammate, he was clear to point out, changing the focus of the conversation from just himself to the group as a whole.

“Listen, we’ve tried to build slowly,” Subban said. “I’m sure two years ago, people weren’t expecting our team to be in the situation we’re in now. But as an organization, I think we’re doing the right thing on and off the ice. A lot of positive going on here.”